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Chapter 110 - A Means Between Light And Darkness
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Chapter 110: A Means Between Light And Darkness
Zheng Ren took out his cell phone and called the emergency department.
Soon, a paramedic rushed over with a stretcher trolley, almost out of breath.
Zheng Ren leaned closer to the paramedic and said softly, "Everything is fine."
"A troublemaker?" guessed the paramedic, an experienced man, as he scanned the area.
"Yes." After the brief conversation, they quickly transferred the rogue to the stretcher trolley and hurried to the emergency department.
Upon arrival at the emergency department, Zheng Ren pushed the stretcher trolley directly into an empty treatment room instead of the observation unit, closed the door and said, "The patient has lost consciousness. It's a serious condition and we're in big trouble now."
The young traffic officer's face was chalk-white.
Due to a lack of experience, he could not grasp the meaning behind Zheng Ren's words.
"Prepare for resuscitation!" yelled Zheng Ren furiously while repeatedly blinking his eyes, trying to give the traffic officer a hint.
After that, he left the room, looked for the night shift nurse and gave her a few instructions in a low voice.
The nurse smiled with a gleam in her eyes. "Chief Zheng, you look so honest, how did you even come up with such an evil plan?"
"A troublemaker has been drunk driving, isn't that enough?" replied Zheng Ren with a grin.
Drunken driving and brawls were the most annoying issues ever encountered in hospitals.
Zheng Ren had no issue with alcohol, but when people started losing control of themselves after getting drunk, it could inadvertently lead to tragedy.
For example, a student due for a college entrance examination the next day had been struck by a drunk driver during a walk and was reduced to a vegetative state. In another case, a husband had taken his pregnant wife for a stroll, but a drunk driver had brought all of them to heaven…
Thus, Zheng Ren hated such people the most.
He was a good man, but not a doormat. He had his own judgment, and at certain breaking points, he would break the rules and furtively seek revenge.
Just like now.
After collecting the right medication, the nurse went to the treatment room and started injecting them into the drunk rogue's veins.
Then, she hung up a bottle of solution and maximized the infusion rate.
"He should be fine if he regains consciousness. Otherwise, we'll have to resuscitate him." It was pure nonsense, but Zheng Ren maintained his serious tone.
The young traffic officer was completely drenched in a cold sweat as if a war was raging within his mind. His imagination was going wild with the fear of getting suspended for this incident.
"He… He should be… be fine, right?" the officer stuttered in fright.
Zheng Ren patted his shoulder to signify that everything was fine.
However, the young traffic officer still could not understand Zheng Ren's actions. His mind had gone blank from the start.
"Doctor, please make sure he is alright," he said pitifully, "I didn't even touch him."
"It depends on the effects of the drug." Zheng Ren's expression remained at ease despite his solemn tone. "Drugs with special effects have been administered. If the patient wakes up, everything will be fine. Otherwise, I'll have to admit him to the hospital."
After that, Zheng Ren turned around and left without looking at the drunk ruffian, who was pretending to be unconscious.
Sitting on a hard, red plastic bench at the door, he explained his current situation in the group chat and inquired about the CT result.
Zheng Yunxia had finished a contrast-enhanced CT scan, and everyone was discussing where they would have dinner at the moment.
Zheng Ren was speechless; everyone always left him behind when going out for a meal. Even though he disliked eating out and hectic environments, he could not help but feel that the whole world had abandoned him.
It was deeply depressing.
Xie Yiren seemed to detect Zheng Ren's dejection from the other side of the phone and volunteered to bring food for him.
Chang Yue mentioned in the group chat that she had gone for another ward round and all patients were stable, and so he could take his time returning to the emergency department.
The group chat became silent afterward.
'They must have gone for dinner.' Zheng Ren helplessly turned off the phone.
'Well, they might as well go. Youngsters prefer a lively environment anyway,' he thought, reverting to an old-fashioned mindset for a moment.
Approximately five minutes later, the door of the treatment room was suddenly flung open and a man, smelling strongly of alcohol and stumbling unsteadily, ran out like a scalded cat.
In the background, the young traffic officer stared dumbfoundedly at the scene before him.
He was confused out of his mind. The ruffian had just revealed that he had been pretending to be dead the whole time, but had thrown off his guise without a care in the world. What the hell was going on?
Had the doctor administered a drug that could trigger the patient's conscience?
Instinctively, the traffic officer followed the man.
"The washroom is on the left!" shouted Zheng Ren as a reminder.
"…" The officer staggered.
A few minutes later, the rogue returned dejectedly, dropping all pretenses; there was no point in continuing the charade now that the cat was out of the bag.
An older traffic officer had arrived on the scene in the meantime. After inquiring about the situation, he scolded the drunken man for his idiocy before instructing the younger officer to deal with subsequent procedures such as blood sample collection. Justice was served in the end.
"Brother, thank you so much for everything," said the senior traffic officer. He spoke in a slightly imposing manner, but Zheng Ren liked it.
"Don't worry about it. It's my job anyway."
"Care for a smoke?"
"Let's go."
They were instantly greeted by an icy breeze upon stepping out of the building. Wrapping his white coat tightly around himself, Zheng Ren accepted a cigarette from the senior officer and took a deep drag.
It was not easy being a doctor or a police officer.
If either one of them started making complaints about the job, their list would be long enough to reach the end of the world.
They chatted casually and exchanged contact numbers. After realizing that Zheng Ren was dressed lightly, the senior traffic officer stubbed out his cigarette and threw it into an ashtray on the dustbin before bidding farewell to Zheng Ren.
Zheng Ren took this opportunity to take a walk around the emergency department. The weather was getting colder, and the general surgery division thus enjoyed this leisure time relatively free of drunken brawls in the middle of the night. However, the internal medicine division had its hands full due to the rapid rise in intracranial hemorrhages and myocardial infarctions.
Places as cold as alpine regions were certainly unsuitable for human habitation, but patients in the southern coastal regions would find their ailments easier to deal with.
Zheng Ren returned to the emergency ward after finishing his ward round.
He greeted the night shift nurses, the only ones left in the nurses' station, before returning to his office and continuing his book.
Half an hour later, he received a call from the senior traffic officer.
He thanked Zheng Ren again on the phone. Had Zheng Ren not risked his neck by violating several rules of the hospital, their issue would have been extremely troublesome to deal with.
Zheng Ren chatted politely for a while before hanging up.
Earlier, he had ordered an intravenous injection of furosemide and a bottle of mannitol for the ruffian.
These drugs were standard treatment for intracranial hemorrhage, but when administered together, diuresis was further intensified which drastically increased urine output.
This resulted in an extremely full bladder.
However, Zheng Ren had also encountered a shameless b*stard who would rather hold his urine and risk incontinence.
After repeated examination to confirm that he was physically alright, urinary catheterization had been performed for the b*stard every one to two hours.
Few people could pretend to be comatose while enduring the agonizing pain of urinary retention just to save some money.
It was good that everything was settled. Zheng Ren shook his head and threw the incident to the back of his mind.
This interlude was merely a small part of his daily life in the emergency department, which ultimately became insignificant overall.
The real issues lay in various peculiar rescue operations that rapidly increased his adrenaline level and instantly broke the high-energy phosphate bonds in all his adenosine triphosphate.
It was a peaceful night. Two hours later, Zheng Ren went for another ward round before the patients went to sleep and made some necessary arrangements before finishing his Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery book.
Incidentally, Su Yun returned to the emergency ward at this time, having eaten his fill.
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Chapter 111: A Sorrowful Past
Su Yun, lunchbox in hand, smiled at Zheng Ren's diligence. "You were indeed born to be a chief resident."
"I've nothing to do at home, anyway. Besides, it's better to be ready for emergency cases and potential emergency surgery in the hospital." Zheng Ren stood, accepted the lunchbox and walked to the on-call room.
"What's your purpose in life?" Su Yun was obviously trying to mock him.
"Perform surgery, earn money, raise a family and make ends meet. Are there any other purposes in life?"
"That's so austere."
"It's essential."
Zheng Ren opened the lunch box, still warm to the touch, in the on-call room and saw his main dish—stir-fried chili pork with white rice.
"Stir-fried chili pork from Denver House. This is a secret family recipe that has been passed down over the generations, but I think it tasted alright." Su Yun sat down on the other side of the table and introduced the food to Zheng Ren.
If he was a server in a restaurant, he would undoubtedly be the worst. There was a complete absence of enthusiasm and it carried across.
Zheng Ren took a bite. It tasted just fine.
The food was not unpalatable, and he was not a picky eater, so anything would be fine as long as his stomach was filled.
The fact that Zheng Ren devoured the food without savoring its taste fueled Su Yun's urge to criticize him out of discomfort.
However, before he could do so, Zheng Ren suddenly asked, "How about you?"
"What about me?"
"Why did you leave Union Medical College Hospital?" asked Zheng Ren.
An eerie silence dominated the on-call room, punctuated only by Zheng Ren's chewing.
"I guessed there had to be a story." Zheng Ren, wiping his mouth after finishing his food, cleaned up the table and asked, "I heard that you had been accepted as a doctoral student in Union Medical College Hospital, so why didn't you continue your studies?"
"Does it have anything to do with you?" Su Yun raised his head and shot back. His sharp gaze penetrated his black bangs as if trying to pierce Zheng Ren's heart.
"You're my assistant, and I think something is bothering you. If we don't sort it out, I worry that you might become lost in the throes of passion and commit a crime."
Needless to say, Zheng Ren's awful joke only made the situation even more awkward, so Su Yun merely responded with a disdainful gaze.
Zheng Ren did not seem like he was looking for an answer. Perhaps he was merely asking out of boredom, or he just wanted the nancy boy to shut up and stop criticizing him.
Since Su Yun chose to remain silent, Zheng Ren started making his bed and brushing his teeth.
Su Yun was still quiet when he was done.
"Goodnight," said Zheng Ren, turning off the lights when Su Yun made no attempt to respond.
After a long time in the dark, Su Yun sighed softly.
The sound was full of helplessness and sorrow.
'What an emotional guy,' Zheng Ren thought after hearing him through a semi-conscious state.
"I had an unfortunate encounter that year." Su Yun's voice was cold and hardly discernible, making it echo around the room.
The sudden statement startled Zheng Ren and he jolted awake.
"A patient with an indifferent family had come to Union Medical College Hospital for consultation, and it was a fairly new encounter for us at the time."
Patients from overseas generally visited Union Medical College Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the country, for treatment, hence the rarity of such an occasion.
Zheng Ren had encountered countless family members who were indifferent and unsupportive towards patients, so it did not surprise him.
"The surgery had been scheduled, but no one signed the preoperative informed consent documents for some reason." Su Yun seemed to be trying to recall a memory that he had tried but failed to bury in the dusty recesses of his mind.
"That day, I noticed that the family was acting strangely. Sometimes, being observant is not a good thing. If you were in my shoes, none of these would have happened."
"…" Zheng Ren was speechless; he had not expected Su Yun to insult him even on his way down the memory lane. Perhaps in Su Yun's eyes, he had no other value apart from his expertise in surgery.
"I noticed one family member had added something to the infusion bottle, so I immediately contacted my teacher. He arrived shortly, sealed off the flow and found evidence of tampering, but the worst was yet to come. As we were resuscitating the patient, that family member struck my teacher's head with a chair.
"I was dazed at that time. I never knew such people existed.
"Blood gushed out of the exposed wound on my teacher's head, and its metallic scent filled the entire ward. The ward was no longer a place of rescue; it had become a nightmarish hell."
Like a devil crawling out of an abyss, Su Yun struggled and mourned silently. Negative emotions—anger, reluctance, helplessness—filled the entire room, causing its temperature to drop by several degrees.
After a long while, Zheng Ren asked, "What happened after that?"
"The resuscitation was successful and the patient was discharged from the hospital, but my teacher suffered side effects of intracranial hemorrhage and has been unable to perform surgery since."
"The man who had struck him—"
"That's absolutely pointless," answered Su Yun coldly. Zheng Ren could imagine him brushing his black bangs aside and feel the contempt at the corners of his lips.
"Despite saving countless lives, he became crippled in the end." Su Yun sighed heavily again and added, "We live in an unjust world."
"Is that why you came back?" asked Zheng Ren.
"Yes," Su Yun said, "I didn't want to perform surgery anymore. In fact, I didn't want to involve myself with saving human lives any longer. Had it not been for you, I would have resigned and started a pet medical center."
"I'm sorry for you, then." Zheng Ren tried to make a joke to alleviate the dark, gloomy atmosphere in the on-call room.
"It's okay." Su Yun accepted his 'condolences' and asked, "I'm curious. How did you get so proficient in surgery at your age? More importantly, who taught you interventional radiology?"
"It's just talent."
"Pooh!" Su Yun replied scornfully, "you have greater innate talent than I do? I don't believe it. You're just a hard worker who became an expert after repeated practice. Are you bullsh*tting me?"
Zheng Ren was taken by surprise. Despite his narcissism and complete ignorance of the matter, Su Yun was closer than anyone to the truth.
His suspicion was technically right. Zheng Ren's competency in surgery was due to countless days of intensive training in the System.
"Curing disease and saving lives? I'm not that noble, and my teacher's hemiplegic state haunts me whenever I think about it." Su Yun smiled and said, "Let's go to sleep. I think I'll dream about my teacher and that dreadful hell tonight. How nice, here come those nightmares again."
'This man's view of the world…' Zheng Ren had no response. How traumatised was this man to be able to speak so dejectedly?
'The mist has dissipated and I've awakened from a dream, finally seeing the truth after an eternal silence,' Zheng Ren's mind suddenly recalled, but he could not remember where he had seen this phrase from or its author's identity.
Was it true or false? Zheng Ren preferred not to overthink it. It was better to remain ignorant in life, anyway.
The temperature in the room gradually normalized following Su Yun's silence, and he eventually fell asleep.
He woke up naturally the next morning, a rarity in the department as an emergency doctor would require extreme luck to sleep without disturbance three to five times a year.
As he got up, he saw Su Yun sitting on the bed with his back against the wall, absent-mindedly staring at the blue sky outside the window.
Had this man gone mad?
"You—" Just when Zheng Ren initiated a conversation, Su Yun snapped out of his thoughts and said with a wicked smile, "I'll push for the contrast-enhanced CT result and strive to get things done today."
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Chapter 112:
A Spoiled Child
The rest of the morning was uneventful.
In the afternoon, Zheng Ren received a call about a patient in the emergency department that required his attention.
He rushed to the emergency department. The patient awaiting him for consultation was a middle-aged woman with a provisional diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
The System confirmed the diagnosis.
There was nothing left to do but to admit her to the ward. Whether she would undergo emergency surgery tonight, or do so tomorrow to ensure sufficient fasting, her medical history had to be taken before any decision could be made.
Zheng Ren instructed a nurse to bring in a wheelchair to send the patient to the emergency ward.
The patient was curled up on the bed, unescorted, in the general surgery consultation room. She seemed pitiful, having to seek surgical treatment alone.
Zheng Ren assisted the nurse by gently transferring the patient to the wheelchair and pushing her out of the consultation room.
Even though Su Yun was tagging along throughout the process, he watched them coldly without lending a hand.
Zheng Ren had no desire to understand Su Yun's personality and why he was indifferent to certain patients.
The brat's psychological trauma was untreatable via surgery, so there was nothing he could or would bother to do to remove the old scar.
"Little Heng, Little Heng…" exclaimed the middle-aged woman repeatedly in the wheelchair, the agony in her soft voice clearly detectable.
'That must be her son's name,' Zheng Ren guessed.
Sea City had gradually declined, with a popular saying going, "Investment does not go beyond Shanhaiguan Pass". Youngsters with the capability to do so preferred to move to the South nowadays.
After all, there were higher salaries and more business opportunities for a better future there.
This middle-aged woman's son was probably working, which would explain why she was alone despite having acute appendicitis.
"Where are you guys taking my mom?" Before Zheng Ren rounded the corner with the wheelchair, he heard a voice coming from behind him.
Huh? Zheng Ren froze immediately.
The patient's family was actually here? Was he Little Heng? Why did he not respond when his name had been called out repeatedly?
A pale-looking young man in his twenties approached them with his gaze fixed on his phone. The only time he raised his head was to check where he was going, which was done very briefly as he quickly refocused on his phone, fingers continuously flying across the screen.
"…" Zheng Ren could feel something huge and heavy, like a big stone, pressing on his chest. 'Wow, this kid is really immersed in his phone.'
"Who are you?" asked Zheng Ren.
A few seconds later, the young man replied, "I'm her son."
No eye contact.
Was he playing games? Zheng Ren was aware of currently popular mobile games such as Honor of Kings and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but he had never tried any of them.
During his free time, he would revise or refill his batteries by reading web fiction for a while, but playing games to pass the time never crossed his mind.
"Your mother has acute appendicitis and requires surgery," Zheng Ren explained as he continued on his way to the emergency ward.
This was merely a habit of his. After all, returning to the ward in silence with the patient's family was extremely awkward.
"Okay," replied the young man casually. His eyes were still glued to the phone, and it was unclear if he had heard whatever Zheng Ren had just said.
"When was her last meal and drink?" questioned Zheng Ren.
There was silence for at least ten seconds; the man seemed to realize that Zheng Ren had asked a question only upon reaching the elevator. "What did you say just now?"
"…" Zheng Ren grumbled internally.
He had encountered various kinds of f*cked up patients and family members. Although this was not an endangered or protected species, it was also a rarity.
"When was your mother's last meal and drink?" Zheng Ren repeated.
"How am I supposed to know? Ask her yourself." The young man hesitated upon seeing the elevator and asked, "I'm going to take the stairs. Which floor are we going to?"
"The second floor." Zheng Ren's expression was cold and flat.
"Wait for me at the elevator on the second floor," said the young man as he walked directly to the staircase while staring unblinkingly at his phone.
"Doctor, I took medicine and a sip of water at twelve o'clock, and that was basically it," answered the middle-aged woman in the wheelchair, enduring intense abdominal pain.
Zheng Ren responded with a stern expression, causing the atmosphere in the elevator to become inexplicably unpleasant.
The middle-aged female patient seemed to detect Zheng Ren's emotions and explained, "Little Heng is a good kid, but he is still young, so please forgive him for his slight immaturity."
Slight… immaturity? Was she being serious?
Zheng Ren could detect infinite love in the patient's tone.
However, as a doctor, this was not a part of his job and his only responsibility was to treat disease.
Even police officers could not handle this type of issue, so what could a doctor possibly do?
The young man was still nowhere to be seen when they reached the second floor. Zheng Ren stopped and announced, "Since the patient has fasted for long enough, inform Xie Yiren and Little Chu to prepare for surgery."
Su Yun, like a shadow trailing Zheng Ren, acknowledged his instructions.
"You'll undergo surgery soon. It's just a minor operation, so don't worry too much about it," said Zheng Ren.
"My appendix will be removed, right? When can I get off the bed after surgery?" asked the patient.
"You can walk to the bathroom in about a day, but be careful not to reopen the wound; we'll remove the suture in five to seven days."
"That's too long. What is Little Heng going to eat if I can't cook?" Despite her agony, the woman was still worried about that young man, who presumably was still on his way up the stairs.
"…"
Zheng Ren was an orphan. Even though the teachers and aunties in the kindergarten had treated him kindly, they did not spoil him as much as this patient excessively loved her son.
She would undergo surgery soon and yet her only concern was that she could not cook for her beloved son?
This…
"You can just order food online, it's the same anyway."
"No can do. Outside food is usually cooked in gutter oil. Toxicity aside, it's not delicious either. Little Heng can't tolerate that kind of food," the middle-aged woman said guiltily, "It's all my fault. Why have I fallen sick?"
Zheng Ren once again remained silent. They were not on the same page and there was no way he could understand the thoughts on her mind.
The two doctors and patient stood in the corridor and waited for nearly a minute before the patient's son slowly emerged from the stairway with the phone still in his hands.
The colorful lights of the phone reflected brightly off his facial features, at the same time accentuating the darkness where the light failed to touch. What a gruesome sight!
Zheng Ren kept quiet and pushed the wheelchair to the emergency ward.
'I think Chang Yue might have trouble communicating with this kind of person,' he conjectured.
After arranging a bed for the patient, he pushed her directly to the treatment room for preoperative skin preparations.
She was going for surgery soon, so it was better not to cause her any unnecessary disturbances.
Su Yun went to the operating theater straight away to prepare for surgery.
The preoperative preparations for acute appendicitis was relatively easy. After documenting the patient's medical history and instructing Chang Yue to put the case in writing, Zheng Ren printed out a set of preoperative informed consent documents and hospital admission forms and started looking for the patient's son.
Earlier, he had taken way too long to complete his mother's admission process.
However, the patient's son was gone when Zheng Ren arrived at the treatment room, and he could see the patient's agony as she curled up in the wheelchair in a posture that was uncomfortable to watch.
The desolation was indescribable.
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Chapter 113: Where Are Your Manners
Zheng Ren was numb from disappointment.
After the nurses checked her vital signs and completed their laborious preparation, Zheng Ren went to look for the patient's son.
As silence was the norm in the wards, he could not shout out for the young man. If he raised his voice, some old grandfather could suffer
a heart attack.
He suspected the man might not even hear him if he shouted.
When Su Yun came down and found Zheng Ren and Chang Yue only halfway done with the informed consent documents, he brought the middle-aged woman into the operating room.
Zheng Ren spent ten minutes searching for the patient's son. He found him in the fire escape.
The man was seated on the steps, focused on his game.
Zheng Ren dragged the man, who was visibly annoyed, back inside.
He sat him down in the office and activated a video recorder to begin informing him about the appendectomy.
Zheng Ren explained every line and item, from anesthesia risk to assisted ventilation, in detail.
The patient's son kept playing his game. Zheng Ren was not sure if he was listening to the many risks that came with surgery.
Zheng Ren did his duty, suppressing the urge to slap the man. He continued his explanation.
It took fifteen minutes for Zheng Ren to finish explaining the simple appendectomy.
This was the most difficult informed consent procedure that he had ever encountered.
To complete the procedure, Zheng Ren needed the man to sign the document. As the man's attention was mostly on his phone, Zheng Ren insisted he write a clause at the bottom of the page. With exasperation in his eyes, the man wrote as Zheng Ren instructed, 'I have been informed of the risks accompanying the appendectomy and agree to the procedure.'
He had been on his phone for too long. There were many characters that he had forgotten how to write.
Zheng Ren had to ask him to follow the printed characters on the document. For some, he had to write them out on a blank piece of paper so that the young man could copy them down.
The whole ordeal was more draining than performing a surgery.
Once consent was given, Zheng Ren called the operating room to begin preparations. He carefully placed the documents in his office drawer and locked it before leaving.
He headed straight to the changing room, changing into scrubs at record speed.
The surgical lamp was blinding but Zheng Ren found it reassuring. Its familiar light was more welcoming than the bastard he had faced minutes ago.
Su Yun stood by his side in the assistant's position. The lower right quadrant of the abdomen was covered in a piece of white, sterile covering.
Xie Yiren had her hands on the surgical tray. Only one of the Chu sisters was present but he was not sure if it was Chu Yanran or Chu Yanzhi.
The three were casually talking about Miss Yun's surgery in the operating room.
When Su Yun saw him, he greeted Zheng Ren with a mocking remark, "Hey! What took you so long to get consent? Did you swallow your bedside manners?" The man was in a much better mood than yesterday night.
"…"
"No wonder you eat so little."
Zheng Ren shook his head and proceeded to wash his hands.
"You don't have to operate," Su Yun said.
"Huh?"
"Take a look. If there's no issue, I'll perform the removal." Su Yun removed the covering to reveal the surgical site.
The abdomen had been cut open cleanly. The ligament and appendicular artery were visible under the surgical light.
Su Yun had done the initial work and waited for Zheng Ren to arrive.
The guy was capable.
Zheng Ren studied the site. "Go ahead, then. I won't scrub in," he replied.
He stood aside and observed Su Yun like a mentor.
Zheng Ren assessed Su Yun's methodology. He was using an advanced technique and his ability was only slightly below Zheng Ren's.
This assessment was reaffirmed by the clean laparotomy Su Yun performed prior.
A swollen appendix was tossed into the surgical tray and Su Yun began closing up the abdomen. The surgery proceeded swiftly with cooperation between Su Yun and Xie Yiren.
"Good," Zheng Ren commented.
"Not as good as you, but close. As a perfectionist, I have to admit that," Su Yun said as he stitched up the subcutaneous tissue.
Zheng Ren ignored the competitiveness in Su Yun's words. The surgery had gone well without interference and that was a win.
"When will Miss Yun's scan be ready?" Xie Yiren handed over the sterile dressing, then started to pack away the instruments.
"I'll follow up with them later." Su Yun applied the dressing expertly and announced the surgery to be complete.
They lifted the patient onto a trolley stretcher and prepared to return her. Su Yun put on his white coat and left alongside Zheng Ren.
Beyond the operating room, the patient's son was seated with his knees up on the red plastic chair. The man was so engrossed in his phone that he did not notice the door open.
He was totally cut off from the world.
Zheng Ren spoke up in an icy tone, "Come look at your mother."
His words fell on deaf ears as the patient's son continued to play with his phone.
"Hey!" Zheng Ren raised his voice.
The corridor outside the operating room was empty and his voice bounced off the walls, echoing off into the distance.
"Xiao Heng…" The patient's head lolled to one side in search of her precious son. Her body was positioned awkwardly as it was still under the effects of continuous epidural anesthesia.
"Don't move too much. You might tear the stitches," Zheng Ren warned.
Behind him, Su Yun spoke up: "Chief Zheng, you go ahead and send the patient back. I'm gonna go change."
Without waiting for Zheng Ren's reply, he turned his back to the deplorable scene and went back into the operating room.
'What a nimble escape,' Zheng Ren thought. A few seconds too slow and now he was stuck alone with the abhorrent young man.
There was nothing that could be done. Zheng Ren called the young man a few more times, volume rising a notch with each call. Suddenly, the young man looked up and shouted back, "Why are you yelling? Where are your manners?"
Zheng Ren was speechless at the young man's outburst.
Manners? Did he even know what manners were?
Zheng Ren did not take kindly to being lectured by a bastard like him.
Nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut. Even with Su Yun's cutthroat remarks, Zheng Ren was never this outspoken.
The young man looked at his phone and an angry expression flashed across his face. Perhaps in his few seconds of inattention, his character had been killed?
He was furious. He gritted his teeth as he contained his anger at the great injustice.
"Come help me push the stretcher," Zheng Ren implored tiredly.
The young man shot him a hateful glare but switched the phone off. With one hand at the foot of the stretcher, he tugged it along as Zheng Ren pushed.
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Chapter 114: A Fond Mother Spoils The Child
It took twelve minutes to travel from the operating room on the third floor to the emergency department ward on the second floor.
The patient was lifted onto the hospital bed. Zheng Ren breathed a sigh of relief.
The sky was already dark. Two to three hours for an appendectomy that he did not perform. It dissatisfied him somewhat.
Chang Yue was typing up the first-time admission record, the ward round record, the post-surgery record and other paperwork.
"Be wary of the patient's family," Zheng Ren warned Chang Yue.
Whether she heeded his warning would be another matter.
After the surgery, Su Yun headed for the CT room to follow up on the 64-slice CT scan.
Before the end of their shift, Old Chief Physician Pan took Zheng Ren, Chang Yue and Yang Lei for a ward round.
In most of the rooms, the patient's family welcomed them with smiles and laughter, complimenting the surgical skill that speeded up their patients' recovery. When they got to the room of the patient with acute appendicitis, they were greeted with a sight of her adult son taking up half the hospital bed. The patient was still recovering from anesthesia.
Old Chief Physician Pan's face was grim. "Get up, you."
He was a man who had been through war and witnessed countless deaths. The murderous aura currently radiating from the old man surprised Zheng Ren.
The patient's son was startled from his nap and was about to throw a tantrum when he saw Old Chief Physician Pan's expression.
Instead, he said nothing and curled up against his mother's side like a baby quail.
"Doctor, the child is just tired. He didn't get enough sleep last night," the middle-aged woman said as she fought her pain. She shifted her body and tried miserably to shield the young man.
Each movement brought a stab of pain to her incision site.
Old Chief Physician Pan coughed lightly. It was not his place to criticize the patient's parenting, so he began routine questioning.
Chang Yue stood behind him and wrote up the conversation.
"No major movement for a day. You can start eating after passing gas," Old Chief Physician Pan advised in the end. He turned to leave the room.
He was clearly in a bad mood, apparent from the look on his face.
That was the patient's son, not his. So, just like Zheng Ren before, Old Chief Physician Pan could only ball up his anger and keep it within himself.
The other patients in the room were stable. Old Chief Physician Pan had confidence in Zheng Ren's and Chang Yue's work ethics, so he only sat in briefly before leaving for the office.
An hour later, Su Yun returned with the 64-slice CT scan.
Zheng Yue placed the scan on the film viewer and used his phone to capture the image.
He studied the scan in detail and made sure his phone camera had captured it clearly. Then, he sent the photos to Chang Yue for her negotiations with Manager Feng from China Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery.
Chang Yue was not in the office. She was probably speaking with one of the patients.
Zheng Ren went to look for her to discuss Miss Yun's surgery.
…
…
It was another quiet night. As the weather got colder, fewer roadside stalls were open. There was less drunken fighting and even if there were, thicker clothing led to fewer injuries.
The drop in cases of emergency surgeries was a blessing to Zheng Ren's sleep schedule.
It was morning when Zheng Ren was woken by shouts from a patient's room.
A shiver crawled up his spine and he quickly rushed out.
Following the sounds, Zheng Ren managed to locate the source.
Before he could enter the room, the young man from before barged out furiously, nearly colliding into him.
Zheng Ren frowned. 'What's this young man up to again?'
He moved aside and allowed the man to stomp past before entering the patient's room.
The middle-aged woman who was recovering from her appendectomy had her head under the covers. From its shuddering, Zheng Ren gathered that she was crying.
The patients who shared the room, as well as their families, had looks of disapproval.
Zheng Ren asked, "What happened?"
Two of the patients who had more or less recovered remained silent. They had snuck off last night and therefore did not know the full story.
However, they were also shocked at the turn of the events.
One of the other patient's family members spoke up: "Her son wanted her to prepare a meal for him. I told him his mother was still recovering from her surgery and he should just order delivery. He got mad and slapped her."
"…"
Barbaric.
Zheng Ren sighed. He felt helpless. Some words of consolation would be nice, but it would be difficult to do so without being judgemental. After all, it was her parenting that led to this.
After a few seconds of contemplation, Zheng Ren decided to leave this conundrum to his junior, Chang Yue. Perhaps the fearless resident doctor could find a solution to this.
Zheng Ren went to the office and ran into her just clocking in. He gave her a summary of the patients' status and asked about the discussion with Manager Feng.
Manager Feng had been very cooperative. He had passed on the CT scan images to the professor in Sorcery Capital and they would have a verdict on the case after the professor's morning rounds.
Zheng Ren was eager to work with the professor. He wondered how being the Master rank in interventional surgery would compare against the world's best.
He had an inkling that the difference could be translated into the skill point difference between a Master and Grandmaster.
Nevertheless, he wanted to witness it with his own eyes.
As he was finishing up his paperwork, Chang Yue came into the office with an odd look on her face.
This was the first time Zheng Ren had seen this expression on her. He asked out of curiosity, "What's wrong?"
"A doting mother spoils the child."
That was pretty telling.
"She tried calling her son but all her calls were rejected. Then, he blocked her number."
There was nothing they could do about the situation, so he changed the topic to the Sorcery Capital professor.
Maybe Chang Yue could compose the patient, if she had the patience.
What could anyone say about an adult in his twenties acting like a wild animal?
Zheng Ren failed to hold back a sigh. He sat back down and started reading.
Chang Yue took a moment to manage her emotions. Then, with her spirits recovered, she trudged out into the hospital ward to get acquainted with patients and their families.
During lunch break, the wards were less hectic.
Some of the patients who lived near the hospital had covertly returned home after morning checks were complete.
Although insurance companies did not allow patients to leave the hospital, doctors could not force them to stay, either.
If they did so, it would be considered unlawful detention and could become a huge problem if a hard-headed family sued them for it.
In the hospital, they had the triple, double and single suites. Single rooms were limited, while triple rooms were usually cramped with three patients and their families making the air stuffy and uncomfortable. Therefore, doctors usually turned a blind eye to patients leaving their rooms as long as they signed liability disclaimers beforehand.
The rooms were thus filled with the three patients who had their surgeries only a day ago and could not walk yet.
These patients had undergone laparotomies. Patients who underwent laparoscopic splenectomy could usually go home in twenty-four hours post-surgery.
The muted hospital ward was preferable to Zheng Ren. He liked it more than the chaos of the first general surgery department.
After noon, Zheng Ren's phone beeped. It was a WeChat message from Manager Feng of China Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery.
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Chapter 115: One Tree Does Not Make A Forest
"Good day, Chief Zheng. This is Feng Xuhui speaking," the voice buzzed from the phone.
Zheng Ren could hear his youth cracking through.
"What did Professor Pei say?"
"He is up for it. I have already booked the flight for tomorrow. He should reach Sea City at 1.30 pm," Manager Feng said cheerfully.
"Good. Thank you for your help." Zheng Ren was relieved.
All was going well. Zheng Ren had worried the Sorcery Capital professor's schedule was full. A delay of one or two weeks could see changes in Miss Yun's liver tumor.
Hepatocellular carcinoma was one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths.
Zheng Ren shared the good news in the WeChat group.
Once that was done, he took his book and went to the on-call room to rest.
He was up too early and his body bemoaned the injustice. The lack of surgeries had made his body lethargic, so he decided to rest in case of emergencies coming in at night.
Zheng Ren found Su Yun sound asleep in the on-call room.
He laid down and entered the System.
It was time to check on his skills and missions.
As the morning surgery had been done by Su Yun, Zheng Ren doubted the System would mark it as one of his own. When he scrolled through the details, he saw a new mission had appeared without any announcement.
[Continuous Side Mission: One Tree Does Not A Forest Make
Surgeries are not meant for a single surgeon. Even the best surgeons need to rest. Therefore, it is time to develop an assistant surgeon.
Mission Details: Assistant completes ten surgeries.
Mission Reward: Master ranked 3D Reconstruction of CT Scans skill book.
Mission Duration: One week.]
The mission completion bar had one point in it from this morning's appendectomy.
One tree does not a forest make…if only Zheng Ren could pick another assistant. Although Su Yun was well-equipped to accomplish such a mission easily, Zheng Ren was still not fond of him.
He was somewhat curious about the mission reward, though. This was the first time the System had offered a book for a specific skill branch. Zheng Ren had not thought of a use for 3D CT scan reconstruction, but an additional skill was never a bad thing.
It was peaceful inside the System. The lake was crystal clear and the traces of blood on the lifelike fox statue had disappeared. Its eyes gleamed as if it was alive and Zheng Ren could feel its gaze.
Without distortion and stench of blood in the air, Zheng Ren felt at peace in the System.
He browsed through the System Shop. A look at his remaining experience points made him close the Shop menu.
It had been a few days without any missions, so this continuous side mission was better than nothing, although he was still more interested in getting his general surgery skills to Master rank.
With a slight taste of disappointment, Zheng Ren left the System.
He took an hour-long nap before being woken by a phone call. There was a case of acute appendicitis that needed his consultation.
Zheng Ren quickly rolled off the bed and put on his shoes. Su Yun was already awake, his eyes bright and aware.
'He really does look like a protagonist,' Zheng Ren thought.
The two went to the emergency department. After the consultation, they decided surgery was necessary. The patient was brought to Chang Yue and Yang Lei for registration and preoperative preparations.
With the ongoing side mission on hand, Zheng Ren decided to step aside and go in as the assistant, yielding the patient to Su Yun.
Su Yun took the opportunity given. Be it a laparotomy or laparoscopy, he displayed remarkable surgical skill and a profound knowledge of anatomy.
He was definitely more than a pretty face.
There were more patients today. They had two more cases of acute appendicitis and another of acute cholecystitis from noon to night.
For the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Su Yun let Zheng Ren take the lead. He was required to observe the surgery once before he could replicate it.
Zheng Ren did not care who the lead surgeon was, as long as they were an adequate assistant. Su Yun handled all three acute appendicitis cases, one of which required a laparoscopic procedure. The side mission completion bar was now at six points. A few more appendectomies and he would accomplish the mission.
This was a great day, with emergency patients all throughout it. The last surgery ended at midnight and the emergency department was calm again.
Xie Yiren went home, adamant to not stay in the hospital. Zheng Ren worried for her safety but could never persuade her to stay, so he gave up trying.
The Chu sisters had arranged their work schedule to take turns with the night shift. As Zheng Ren could not tell them apart, he could only guess whose turn it was today.
After a silent night, the group were well-rested as they prepared to receive the fly-in surgeon from Sorcery Capital, Professor Pei.
Zheng Ren was on call in the emergency department, so he left it to Chang Yue to liaise with Feng Xuhui.
She kept them updated on the journey. Manager Feng was already at the airport an hour early. There were no delays to the flight and things were moving as planned.
At 1:45 pm, Manager Feng picked up Professor Pei and headed to the hospital.
They had asked Professor Pei if he would like to make any preparations, and the man requested to meet the patient before the surgery started.
Zheng Ren was glad. Many fly-in surgeons lived a fast-paced life and did not bother meeting the patient.
A short talk with the patient would make a surgeon more cautious during the surgery. Zheng Ren considered the gesture admirable.
Manager Feng's messages kept coming in, keeping them updated of their journey from the airport to the city center.
Zheng Ren thought Manager Feng was too nervous; perhaps it was the first big project of his career.
Careful execution was important. Recklessness could cause everything to fall apart.
At 2:40 pm, Manager Feng sent them another message, stating that they were in sight of the hospital.
"The professor is arriving." Zheng Ren patted down his clothes. He had not put on a shirt and tie for the occasion but did change into a new white coat.
"With your appearance, dressing up would just elicit the opposite response," Su Yun said without batting an eye. Maybe he thought being truthful outweighed tact.
Zheng Ren was already immune to his insults.
Silently, they waited. Ten minutes passed and all was still quiet.
There was no update from Manager Feng.
Chang Yue was getting anxious but Zheng Ren considered that perhaps they were having trouble locating a parking spot around the hospital.
Another five minutes went by and there was still no sign of them.
Zheng Ren sat down and dialed Feng Xuhui's number.
"Manager Feng? Is everything okay?"
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Chapter 116: Minor Accident
Chang Yue looked anxious. Her eyes searched Zheng Ren's for answers.
Su Yun finally asked out loud, "What's wrong?"
"They had an accident at the hospital entrance. Professor Pei is being sent to the emergency department," Zheng Ren said as he rushed downstairs.
Change Yue made to follow, but Zheng Ren ordered her away.
In the emergency room, Zheng Ren saw Manager Feng standing at the door of Chief Physician Pan's office, a look of despair on his face.
He sped up to reach Manager Feng. "How's the professor?"
"A three-wheeled motorcycle collided with the car. Professor Pei's left knee was injured when the emergency brake kicked in. His knee hit the front seat."
Their prudent planning had fallen apart right outside the hospital.
"Where is he now?"
"In the emergency rescue room," Old Chief Physician Pan said.
Zheng Ren immediately rushed in and saw an old man with graying hair on the hospital bed.
The top right corner of his vision brought up his diagnosis: the soft tissue around his left knee joint was injured and the cruciate ligaments were damaged. Zheng Ren had mixed feelings about this.
The injury was not severe, but with his ligaments damaged, the professor needed two to three days of rest before he could even walk properly.
It was not life-threatening or chronic, but today's surgery would have to be delayed.
Old Chief Physician Pan greeted Professor Pei and asked about his injury.
"Nothing serious." Professor Pei's body was fit for his age. He waved his hand and continued, "Just some minor trauma to the soft tissue and cruciate ligaments. Nothing major, really."
"Let's do a scan to make sure," Old Chief Physician Pan said, concerned.
Professor Pei tried to decline the offer but Old Chief Physician Pan insisted. Zheng Ren ended up wheeling the professor to the NMRI room.
The results confirmed the diagnosis made by the System and Professor Pei. It was not a serious injury.
Professor Pei was frustrated. He sighed and asked, "What happens now with the surgery?"
Zheng Ren had been mulling this issue. He thought for a moment and asked, "Professor Pei, if you don't mind, could you guide us through the surgery?"
A guided surgery involved the professor giving step-by-step guidance while junior doctors did the legwork.
"Have you done the procedure before?" Professor Pei asked curiously.
He was under the impression that Sea City General Hospital had state-of-the-art facilities but no interventional surgery experts.
This was why China Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery targeted Sea City for their debut.
"I've done a few cases. Uterine and renal artery embolizations; mainly surgeries to control bleeding," Zheng Ren answered truthfully.
"That's good enough." Professor Pei nodded in approval. "If there's any difficulty, I will step up. My body may not be young anymore, so I can't stand on one leg for too long. Thank you for helping."
"No, thank you for even coming," Zheng Ren said to the old man. He had the utmost respect for the medical practitioner. The old man had strong ethics alongside his superb surgical skill.
Professor Pei was fidgety. Perhaps it was true that every surgeon had minor obsessive compulsive disorder; as long as there was surgery to be done, they would be restless.
At Professor Pei's request, Zheng Ren wheeled him to the emergency ward.
"Ding dong~!" the System chimed.
Oh? A mission?
[Continuous Mission—Doctors with Parental Heart 2: Hope Amidst Despair
Mission Details: Complete the liver cancer tumor embolization.
Mission Reward: 100 skill points and 1000 experience points.
Mission Duration: 4 hours.]
Chang Yue was anxiously waiting for news. When she saw Zheng Ren approaching with a wheelchair, her heart fell.
Professor Pei introduced himself to Zheng Yunxia and they discussed her case. Then, he asked for her CT scans and spent a few minutes analyzing them in an office. FInally, he was satisfied.
The preoperative preparations were complete and Chang Yue brought Zheng Yunxia up to the operating room on the third floor.
They took a while to reach the room as it was Chang Yue's first time transporting a patient there. Normally, Su Yun or Zheng Ren would do the honors.
Professor Pei looked around the interventional suite in the operating room and was very impressed.
Meanwhile, Zheng Ren and Su Yun got down to business.
No one spoke at that point. The only difference in this surgery was its difficulty and the professor's guidance.
Su Yun started disinfection and placed the surgical drapes over the patient. Zheng Ren changed into the System's special lead vest, scrubbed in and started femoral artery cannulation.
…
…
The System was humming, but unlike before, the livestream on Xinglin Garden did not begin.
After a moment, the humming disappeared and the System was silent.
There was no livestream this time.
…
Through the thick lead-glass window, Professor Pei watched the two surgeons busying themselves in the operating room. "Where did Little Zheng learn interventional surgery?"
Old Chief Physician Pan, standing beside Professor Pei, answered the sensitive question. "He must have learned it in his past. I'm not too sure, either, but I watched his past two surgeries and saw nothing amiss."
He was glad that Zheng Ren was not in the room.
If Zheng Ren gave an honest answer, that he once watched it performed during his housemanship, the professor could become angry.
The boy was a good person, but at times, he was too honest.
Old Chief Physician Pan liked that Zheng Ren was good at surgery. Hence, his flaws were balanced out.
"I see. Let's see how it goes then." Professor Pei could only comment as much.
An emergency embolization was not the same as embolization for a liver cancer tumor.
During emergency embolizations, the target blood vessel was usually bigger and easier to access, but for a liver cancer tumor, the embolization of 4th-grade arteries was needed to ensure high efficacy of treatment.
However, the boy only needed to know the basics. Professor Pei would scrub in when it was time for arterial superselective catheterization.
As the two old men talked shop, the vascular sheath had already been inserted and the guide wire was slowly entering the femoral artery.
"The pair seem very accustomed to the surgery. Steady hands," Professor Pei said, nodding with approval.
Femoral artery catheterization was a medium-difficulty procedure, but Zheng Ren succeeded on his first attempt. Although the patient did not suffer hypovolemia, it was rare to see a non-specialized doctor in a small city like Sea City perform the procedure with such proficiency.
Old Chief Physician Pan smiled but said nothing. Zheng Ren had always been successful on the first attempt.
However, he did have a few worries as Zheng Ren had never done liver cancer tumor embolization before. Who knew what could go wrong?
The guide wire was in place and Su Yun switched on the imaging system.
In the control room, the live image of the surgery appeared on the 40-inch screen. Professor Pei watched it attentively.
The room was dead silent. The procedure required an administration of chemotherapy drugs into the liver, so Xie Yiren was there to pass them the concoction. This form of targeted delivery minimized side effects.
The Chu sisters, Chang Yue, and Feng Xuhui had nothing to do but remain in the room. No one spoke, afraid to interrupt Professor Pei's thought process.
In the operating room, under X-ray radiation, Zheng Ren slowly maneuvered the thin silhouette of the guide wire into the target vessel.
"Commendable superselection skills," Professor Pei lauded.
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Chapter 117: Major Accident
"He's experienced." The professor's praise made Old Chief Physician Pan incredibly happy.
He shielded Zheng Ren from people's anger but showed humility at the professor's compliments.
Zheng Ren was like his own son. The boy was very talented and deserving.
"The superselection was well-done," Professor Pei said a few minutes later, impressed.
The guide wire moved from the hepatic to the branching artery. The path got narrower as Zheng Ren maneuvered deeper into the network of vessels, each branch requiring him to enter a new vessel. The process was extremely difficult.
Manager Feng's face was tense as he watched the surgery.
This was the first challenge in his field and he had used a lot of resources to bring Professor Pei from Sorcery Capital to ensure the surgery was flawless.
As luck would have it, they had gotten into an accident right outside the hospital gates and now, Professor Pei was not fit to perform surgery.
Although Professor Pei had not suffered any major injuries, Manager Feng expected the surgery to be called off, leaving him to pack his bags and leave Sea City with nothing to show for it.
'A roaring start that ends with a whimper,' Manager Feng had thought as he despaired about his career.
An unexpected blessing had come in the form of a young chief resident from the emergency department.
Manager Feng's worries had been quelled by Professor Pei's assent to a guided surgery.
Five minutes passed and the superselection was done. The guide wire was maneuvered through the femoral artery and into the 4th-grade vessel that was 1cm away from the tumor.
The guide catheter made its entrance, followed by the guide wire, which was established for the catheter—a thick and flexible tube—to follow its path to the tumor.
Zheng Ren's technique was delicate, accurate and flawless in execution.
Professor Pei watched the screen, rapt. Although he said nothing, his look of admiration was evident.
He expected this level of performance from himself, but did not expect to find another surgeon with similar skills in this small city. Clearly, there was hidden talent to be uncovered.
When the catheter reached the tumor site, Su Yun switched off the imaging system. He waved to the control room while his other hand held onto the guide wire and catheter.
Xie Yiren took the cue and went through the heavy lead door. It was time for drug administration.
The chemotherapy drugs had to be prepared on the spot as there was the possibility of a prolonged or failed superselection.
Hepatocellular carcinoma was unlike other forms of cancer with first-line and second-line chemotherapy. For many years, surgical excision of the tumor was the only effective treatment.
In the last decade, the rise of interventional radiology-assisted techniques and the development of targeted medicine such as sorafenib gave hepatocellular carcinoma patients a better chance.
Through clinical studies, doctors realized a combination of chemotherapy drugs and the embolization of the artery supplying nutrients to the tumor produced the best results.
Chemotherapy drugs were known as 'poisons' as their efficacy lay in their cytotoxicity. During surgery, the drug would be delivered to the tumor before the artery was embolized, effectively steeping the tumor in poison. After the artery was embolized, there would be no more nutrients supplied to the tumor.
It was a successful two-pronged strategy.
Xie Yiren was quick with her hands. The drugs were prepared and loaded into the pressure injector. She gave Zheng Ren an encouraging fist pump before closing the heavy lead door behind her.
After the drugs were administered, Zheng Ren performed the iodized oil embolization of the artery.
Once the process was complete, he started up the imaging system.
This step was akin to the saline rinse of normal surgeries. It allowed the surgeon to check for mistakes.
Professor Pei was in a relaxed mood. Jovially, he said, "I had thought that I would need to step up to perform the superselection, but your subordinate managed it admirably."
"Oh, you're being too kind," Old Chief Physician Pan said with a wide smile.
The image was transmitted to the control room screen.
The smile on Professor Pei's face froze as it gazed upon it.
Zheng Yunxia had only one tumor, but it was 8cm big. It was half the height of her liver.
In the image, the bottom half of the tumor was not visible, indicating a successful embolization.
However…
The top half of the tumor was still there.
"Tsk…" Professor Pei's expression darkened.
"Professor Pei, this is…" Old Chief Physician Pan had read up on interventional-radiology assisted surgery earlier, but his 60-year-old brain no longer retained information well. Without any practical knowledge, he could not make out what the situation was.
"The image differs from the CT scans taken prior to the surgery." Professor Pei walked up to the screen and pointed. "The lower half of the tumor is being sustained by the hepatic artery branch but the upper half must be getting nutrients from another artery."
"Which artery could it be?" Old Chief Physician Pan asked.
"I'm not sure. It could be any vessel since tumors can stimulate angiogenesis." Professor Pei shook his head. "The worst case scenario would be a branch from the spinal artery. If that's the case, the embolization procedure has a high risk of causing paralysis."
The room was silent.
Everyone but Xie Yiren looked worried. She, however, seemed to have utmost confidence in Zheng Ren's abilities.
In her opinion, no procedure was out of Zheng Ren's reach.
"Of course, the difficulty lies in locating the blood vessel that supplies nutrients. You need a little bit of luck for that." Professor Pei shook his head.
Soon, Zheng Ren appeared in the control room in his surgical scrubs.
"Professor Pei, what do you think?" Zheng Ren asked.
"If you don't have confidence in it, end the surgery," Professor Pei said grimly as he looked straight into Zheng Ren's lead glasses. "Although it will not be a total success, this surgery would inhibit the lower half of the tumor and extend the patient's life expectancy by three to six months."
Zheng Ren remained silent.
"The other choice would be to find the artery that supplies blood to the top half of the tumor, but it's not going to be easy."
The Chu sisters and Xie Yiren did not want a slipshod surgery. In their few days of knowing Zheng Yunxia, they had all become good friends. They had a personal stake in this, apart from their professional background.
However!
The surgeon would have to endure prolonged radiation exposure.
Although there was protective gear, it was only helpful against short-term exposure. Prolonged exposure to X-rays would make even Iron Man queasy.
A twelve-hour surgery was vastly different from a twelve-hour interventional surgery.
One was exhausting, but the other could lead to the death of the surgeon.
The room was once again silent.
Should they encourage Zheng Ren to try his best?
Should they ask Zheng Ren to forfeit?
They were all caught in a bind.
"Let me try," Zheng Ren answered with a determined nod.
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Chapter 118: Life And Death Are Fated
"Just try your best and don't be too hard on yourself," said Old Chief Physician Pan after a few moments of hesitation.
However, before he could finish, Zheng Ren had already returned to the interventional radiology suite, closing the lead door behind him and giving the crowd a smile with crinkled eyes.
It was a genuine smile of trustworthiness rather than bravado.
The surgery resumed.
Zheng Ren reinitiated superselective catheterization. Since the hepatic artery had been superselected, his next target would be the renal artery.
His manipulation remained proficient and stable.
Once the micro-guidewire entered the designated artery, he inserted the microcatheter and obtained an angiographic image. Unfortunately, the renal artery was not the culprit.
The process of elimination was their only option.
After excluding the hepatic artery and the renal artery, Zheng Ren began superselecting the superior mesenteric artery.
Fifteen minutes later, the results were once again disappointing.
Professor Pei and Old Chief Physician Pan's expressions gradually darkened. One hour had passed and Zheng Ren had spent most of this time exposed to radiation.
'We should give up now,' Old Chief Physician Pan thought.
He could make neither head nor tail of interventional radiology, but if Professor Pei from Sorcery Capital could not find fault with Zheng Ren, then this was simply destined.
Not all diseases could be treated.
Intraoperative findings being completely different from preoperative test results in a seemingly simple surgery was a common occurrence in the medical field.
After all, the truth was hidden underneath skin; it was impossible for tests alone to always be consistent with a direct view.
'If someone must take responsibility in this case, let me be the bad guy.'
Old Chief Physician Pan made up his mind and pressed a button on the intercom.
"Zheng Ren, time's up," he said with a heavy heart.
If possible, no one would give up on saving the patient.
However, things did not go their way.
On the battlefield, how many comrades could have been rescued if blood had been transfused in time? How many could have avoided amputation had a sterile operating theater been available?
It was a great idea, but impractical.
It was impossible even for the United States with its tremendous war machine.
There was only so much a man could do.
This…
This was fate!
Old Chief Physician Pan's words momentarily stunned both Zheng Ren and Su Yun, but instead of giving up on the surgery and leaving the interventional radiology suite, they started exchanging views.
Professor Pei sighed heavily. He had witnessed the same situation countless times and had given up on at least a hundred surgeries in his lifetime.
Who could hold the surgeon responsible when even he could not locate the crucial artery? Besides, even a surgeon would collapse after prolonged radiation exposure, what more the patient?
A few minutes later, the duo in the suite started arguing; even outside observers could detect their hostility through the thick lead door and radiation-shielded glass.
Old Chief Physician Pan immediately stood, opened the lead door and entered the suite.
"What are you guys doing?!" His imperious aura burst out instantly.
"I'm going to try again," Zheng Ren said calmly, "Su Yun has been exposed to radiation for more than an hour. He should leave now."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Had it not been for the fact that Su Yun was wearing a pair of sterile gloves, he would have brushed his bangs aside to express contempt for Zheng Ren.
"I'm the surgeon, so I've the right to make the decision," replied Zheng Ren.
"Do you seriously think—"
"That's enough!" Old Chief Physician Pan interrupted their argument. Shifting his gaze between the bickering duo and taking note of Zheng Ren's determination, he said, "Try again. Su Yun, come with me."
Su Yun could quarrel with and humiliate Zheng Ren with his harsh tongue, but there was absolutely nothing he could say to Old Chief Physician Pan.
Exasperated, he ripped off his sterile surgical gown and tossed it into the biohazard waste bin. Then, like a dejected deserter, he followed Old Chief Physician Pan out of the interventional radiology suite.
His head lowered, the black hair on his forehead danced weakly as the heavy lead door closed.
He removed his lead apron and casually threw it to a corner of the operator's console room.
The lead apron weighed a few kilograms and made a loud bang upon contact, venting the dissatisfaction in his heart.
Old Chief Physician Pan ignored Su Yun's childish behavior, expecting such an attitude of youth.
Besides, the surgery was still ongoing. Even if he was going to reprimand the man, he would do so in private after this was over.
The surgery resumed following the calming of the small storm.
Zheng Ren's movements became slower and more cautious in Su Yun's absence.
Using the crossed-hands maneuver this time, he restarted superselective catheterization.
"Chief Physician Pan, your doctor is good," said Professor Pei, whose eyes were glued to the screen.
Old Chief Physician Pan smiled bitterly. The better the surgeon, the more awkward he was in such a situation.
Chang Yue noticed the dark green patch on the back of Su Yun's surgical attire. Performing surgery in an outfit weighing a few kilograms required both physical and mental strength.
She turned around and left the room before returning with a bottle of water in her hand.
"Thank you," said Su Yun, who averted his gaze from the feed from the interventional radiology suite as he accepted the water.
Chang Yue wanted to console him, but words failed to leave her quivering lips.
In the suite, Zheng Ren had superselected the hepatic, renal and superior mesenteric arteries, and was currently superselecting the radiculomedullary artery.
It was still incorrect!
Instead of ending the surgery as promised, Zheng Ren began superselection of the next artery.
Old Chief Physician Pan could not help himself. He pressed the intercom button and said sternly, "Zheng Ren, I order you to end the surgery now!"
On the operation table lay Zheng Yunxia, fully aware of everything that had happened as she had been given only local anesthesia via the femoral artery at the base of her thigh.
Upon hearing Old Chief Physician Pan's words, she suddenly said, "Doctor Zheng, let's end this now.
"Life and death are fated, and I know I'm doomed. Thank you all so much for your help, I really appreciate it."
Zheng Ren's hand froze for a few seconds before he put down the micro-guidewire and microcatheter, saying softly, "Don't move."
Then, he left the suite.
"Chief Physician Pan, artery superselection is almost complete," Zheng Ren said firmly, "If we give up now, everything we've done will be for nothing."
"It has been two hours! Something must have gone wrong somewhere! Who can give me an explanation?!" Enraged, Old Chief Physician Pan was roaring like a fierce lion.
"Doctor Zheng, just do your best and finish the surgery." Even though Professor Pei was not in the position to order anyone around, he could still give advice.
Zheng Ren shook his head without hesitation and replied, "Chief Physician Pan, let me try again."
"That's what you said just now!"
"I'm the surgeon now and I understand the current situation better than anyone," Zheng Ren said determinedly. "There aren't many arteries left for me to rule out now. What I can think of at the moment are the short gastric artery and aorta, so it'll be over soon. Am I right, Professor Pei?"
Professor Pei contemplated it for a while in his wheelchair.
There was pin-drop silence in the operator's console room.
"Rule out the intercostal arteries as well." Professor Pei was very careful with his words.
Zheng Ren nodded in response and turned to look at Old Chief Physician Pan.
Old Chief Physician Pan met his gaze for five seconds.
"Three times. I'll give you three attempts at superselection," he decided.
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IndexChapter 119 - Be My Doctoral Student
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Chapter 119: Be My Doctoral Student
Unusual arteries were usually thinner and more complicated, so it was particularly difficult to superselect the designated artery on the first attempt.
Arteries such as the hepatic, uterine and renal arteries were considered straight highways compared to the next artery Zheng Ren was going to superselect.
The radiculomedullary artery had a very complicated network. Zheng Ren carefully worked out the dosage of the contrast medium and parsimoniously made every injection after precise analysis and calculation.
He was worried about excessive contrast medium administration, which could force the end of the surgery.
Prolonged radiation exposure, which was constantly on Old Chief Physician Pan's mind, did not concern him in the slightest.
The System's reward, the lead apron with radioactive energy conversion properties, was extremely powerful. Rather than become more tired, the longer Zheng Ren stood in the interventional radiology suite, the more energetic he felt; even his manipulation became increasingly accurate.
Professor Pei, who was attentively watching Zheng Ren attempt to superselect the radiculomedullary artery from the operator's console room, sighed in amazement when it was successful.
Old Chief Physician Pan was afraid that Zheng Ren had reached his physical limit and immediately asked, "Professor Pei, what's wrong?"
"Chief Physician Pan, your chief resident is truly amazing!"
"Huh?"
"The radiculomedullary artery has a very distinctive anatomical structure and varies hugely between each individual. I wouldn't even have touched it had I been the surgeon in charge."
He paused momentarily and excitedly pointed to the screen.
"Had I been in his position, my body definitely would've given out. Therefore, my maneuvering would be erratic and imprecise. However, from Chief Zheng's manipulation, it's as if his physical state is actually improving as time goes by."
Old Chief Physician Pan was flabbergasted.
The man was actually getting more energetic despite performing the surgery in a lead apron that weighed a few kilograms for three hours? Was that a joke?
Even ancient generals could only fight at peak performance for a limited time in full body armor.
Was Zheng Ren possessed by the spirit of Zhao Zilong of Changshan, who charged seven times through the ranks of his enemies during the Battle of Changban?
Despite the successful superselection of the radiculomedullary artery, the angiography revealed that it was not the one feeding the tumor.
Everyone in the operator's console room simultaneously felt disappointment and relief.
If that artery had been the culprit, the surgery could not proceed any further.
Zheng Ren had superselected a few possible arteries, but none of them had been responsible for supplying the tumor according to the angiography.
Short gastric… Intercostal… None of them were responsible for feeding the tumor.
Like finding a needle in a haystack, Zheng Ren had no choice but to keep trying.
Most arteries had been excluded…
Zheng Ren started searching for an answer from within his Master-rank interventional radiology recollections.
Could it be the phrenic artery? It was highly unlikely, but he had to try despite the low possibility.
Just when Zheng Ren was about to superselect the phrenic artery, a bell suddenly rang out in his ears.
[Doctors with Parental Heart 2: Countdown initiated.]
[Ten…]
[Nine…]
Zheng Ren was briefly stunned as he had completely forgotten the mission at hand.
[Five…]
[Four…]
If he ended the surgery now, he would be able to receive the rewards—skill and experience points—that he desperately needed.
However, after a brief moment of hesitation, he ignored the System's cold, monotonous robotic female voice and stubbornly began superselection of the phrenic artery.
The mission?
F*ck that fickle-minded *sshole!
An unfinished task was not a big deal.
The System's robotic female voice vanished into thin air as soon as the countdown was complete. Zheng Ren did not give a damn about it and directed his entire attention towards superselecting the phrenic artery.
The micro-guidewire successfully entered the artery…
Commencing microcatheter insertion…
Using the pressure injector, Zheng Ren began injecting the desired dosage of contrast medium with extreme caution and precision.
One second after the administration of contrast medium, the upper half of the liver tumor, like a shy woman, gradually appeared on the screen in the operator's console room.
"Woah!" Chu Yanzhi immediately jumped up in excitement.
Chu Yanran slowly exhaled and leaned against the wall. Once her overly-tensed up nerves relaxed, energy drained from her body and her legs turned to jelly.
Clenching his fists tightly, Old Chief Physician Pan triumphantly waved his right arm as if had just watched his soldiers gloriously charge through heavy suppressive fire and take down an enemy command center.
On the other hand, Professor Pei reclined into his wheelchair and narrowed his eyes.
The subsequent steps were no longer difficult as everything would be done according to standard procedure.
This young man…
He wanted this talented man!
The surgery ended ten minutes later.
Zheng Ren used a piece of sterile gauze to compress the puncture site on the patient's femoral artery.
Su Yun entered the interventional radiology suite, placed his hand on the gauze and silently shouldered Zheng Ren aside, avoiding any direct eye contact.
'He is pissed.' Zheng Ren wanted to say something, but fought the urge to do so due to his inexperience in such matters.
He tore off his surgical gown and threw it into the biohazard waste bin before leaving the interventional radiology suite.
Upon noticing the darkness outside the window, Zheng Ren thought, 'Time really flies.'
A bottle of water emerged before him. It was from Xie Yiren.
Zheng Ren smiled awkwardly to express his gratitude.
"Chief Zheng, thank you." Chang Yue conveyed her sincere appreciation in a straightforward, simple manner.
"Don't mention it." Zheng Ren accepted the bottle of purified water and gulped it down.
"Little Zheng, come here." Professor Pei smiled and waved his hand.
Zheng Ren approached him.
"You must have studied somewhere to acquire such skills," Professor Pei inquired, "Perhaps a tutor specifically trained you in this field."
Zheng Ren kept quiet and smiled.
Professor Pei was merely showing his heartfelt admiration without looking for an answer.
"There'll be a national interventional radiology annual conference in the near future; would you be interested?" Professor Pei said.
"It depends. To be honest, I… I'm actually a general surgeon," answered Zheng Ren.
"Huh?"
"I'm licensed to practice general surgery," Zheng Ren explained, "Due to my recent transfer to the emergency department, I'm qualified to perform related emergency surgery as well."
Professor Pei noticed Zheng Ren's anxiety and smiled. "That's not what I asked, so why are you so nervous? You're obviously talented and have a high level of competency and patience."
Zheng Ren responded to Professor Pei's compliments with another slightly embarrassed smile
Old Chief Physician Pan asked out of concern, "Are you tired? Do you want to take a break?"
"I'm not tired," answered Zheng Ren, who was standing upright. Old Chief Physician Pan gave him a gentle punch on the chest as he was standing at just the right angle.
This was an old habit in the army as a form of commendation, but no one did this in a hospital, especially when Zheng Ren had just been performing surgery for almost four hours while wearing a lead apron that weighed a few kilograms.
Old Chief Physician Pan immediately became embarrassed upon realizing his mistake.
Like King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, Zheng Ren quickly beat his chest with his own fist, producing several loud thumps to indicate that he was absolutely fine.
"Little Zheng, what's your educational background?" asked Professor Pei.
"Undergraduate."
"I've a slot for a successive master-doctoral program next year. Are you interested in becoming my doctoral student? There won't be any examinations. You just have to come in and I'll personally handle your registration."
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